Free entry – complimentary tea and cake – non members welcome
This is the third in what is now becoming an annual Highgate Society event – a January afternoon
travel talk and tea. Our first, in 2016, featured visits to North America by Catherine Budgett Meakin
and to the Andes by Richard Webber. Last year it was the turn of Michael Hammerson who dusted
off his slides and diary account from 1966 to treat us to a wonderful account of his experiences as a
young man visiting the battlefields of the American Civil War.
This year our focus shifts to Asia where we will hear travellers’ accounts of visits to three countries in
the Caucasus and Central Asia that receive very few foreign visitors.
The presenters will whet your appetite for a visit with images of magnificent mountain scenery as
well as heritage site of world-wide significance. This will be presented within a broader discussion of
sustainable tourism, the impact of the collapse of the Soviet Union, geo-political uncertainty and
social acceptance and resistance to the spread of Western values.
Do you need a guide to visit these countries? Or should you join a group? How safe will you be? And
how easy is it to engage in meaningful discussion with the views of local people? Come and hear.
Programme
3.15 1: Kyrgistan: Guyonne James
3.40 2: Armenia: Richard Webber
4.05 Questions, answers and discussion in response to talks 1 and 2
4.20 Tea
4.35 3: Iran: Betty Pires + team (the precise members of which are to be confirmed)
5.00 Questions, answers and discussion on practicalities of a central Asia visit
The world’s largest philosophy and music festival is coming to London in the summer of 2018. Feed your minds, bodies and souls at HowTheLightGetsIn. For one weekend only, you’ll find the world’s leading thinkers debating today’s biggest ideas in the spectacular grounds of Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath.The festival is packed with stimulating debates covering topics from politics, art, philosophy and science. The impressive line up includes psychologist Steven Pinker, author and playwright Deborah Levy, post-colonial theorist Homi Bhabha, activist and filmmaker Tariq Ali, philosopher Rebecca Goldstein, mathematician and Hawking collaborator Roger Penrose, and many others.
Alongside a range of debates, talks and workshops in London, there will be fantastic acoustic music acts making for a wonderful atmosphere at a beautiful location.
The world’s largest philosophy and music festival is coming to London in the summer of 2018. Feed your minds, bodies and souls at HowTheLightGetsIn. For one weekend only, you’ll find the world’s leading thinkers debating today’s biggest ideas in the spectacular grounds of Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath.The festival is packed with stimulating debates covering topics from politics, art, philosophy and science. The impressive line up includes psychologist Steven Pinker, author and playwright Deborah Levy, post-colonial theorist Homi Bhabha, activist and filmmaker Tariq Ali, philosopher Rebecca Goldstein, mathematician and Hawking collaborator Roger Penrose, and many others.
Alongside a range of debates, talks and workshops in London, there will be fantastic acoustic music acts making for a wonderful atmosphere at a beautiful location.